‘Homeland’ Moves Israel Shoots Over Syria Concerns

Showtime’s Homeland has decided to move to Morocco the filming of third-season scenes that were planned to be shot in Israel, Israeli news outlet Ynet reports. The move was made due to concerns about the situation in Syria, and the show’s American producers informed the producers in Israel of their decision over the weekend, the news outlet said, quoting an unnamed Israeli producer who called the switch “frustrating.” Plans originally included shooting parts of the third season in Israel, as had been portions of the show’s first and second seasons, UK’s Telegraph reported from Tel Aviv. Producers of the show announced at a news conference in July that they were planning to return to Israel to shoot scenes for the final episodes of the coming season, according to multiple news reports from that month. Fox 21, which produces the series, confirmed Israel was considered as a location for the third season, which debuts on Showtime in less than two weeks; the studio did not elaborate.

The move to Morocco is not entirely surprising, Ynet noted, given that FX’s plot Tyrant, from Homeland‘s Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff, will be filmed there. Tensions have run high in Israel over the possibility of retribution from a potential U.S. military strike on Syria, Telegraph reported, adding that citizens have scrambled to buy gas masks and clear out air raid shelters. Homeland is scheduled to return for a third season September 29.